Reality literacy needed to combat truthiness and alternative facts

Scholars on the Road lecturer says understanding media culture is a matter of survival

“How do we go about conceiving the notion of truth if everything is a matter of perspective?”

David Castillo, professor of Romance languages and literatures

University at Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The emergence of fake news has complicated
the media market in ways that few observers anticipated and
“reality literacy” is among the skills necessary to
navigate toward the truth, according to David Castillo, University
at Buffalo professor of romance languages and literatures and
director of the university’s Humanities
Institute.

Castillo will discuss reality literacy as part of the next
Scholars on the Road lecture, titled “Reality in the Age of
Truthiness” on Thursday, March 9, at the Buffalo and Erie
County Public Library, 1 Lafayette Square in Buffalo. Doors open at
5:30 p.m. The lecture begins at 6 p.m.

“I want to start a dialogue about the status of reality
today in our current media culture,” says Castillo.
“Fake news has already met the real world. That’s
a dangerous meeting.”

Scholars on the Road is an award-winning series presented by the
UB’s College of Arts and Sciences that brings together
faculty, alumni and other guests for discussions on contemporary
research and issues, bringing a bit of the classroom environment to
a community audience.

Castillo says reality literacy derives from understanding how
news is constructed and presented.

“Truthiness” meantime, a term coined by Stephen
Colbert, is an intuitive claim to the truth that ignores evidence,
logic and examination, not unlike “alternative facts,”
notions that are sometimes defended as matters of perspective,
according to Castillo.

“How do we go about conceiving the notion of truth if
everything is a matter of perspective?” asks Castillo, an
expert in the early modern period who says the question was an open
one in the 16th and 17th centuries when perspective was crucial.
Perspective in painting was emerging and modern fiction was just
beginning as a literary genre, feeding in part on the notion that
reality was a process of negotiation.

“Can democracy survive the influx of fake news and
alternative facts? That’s also an open question,” says
Castillo. “We may believe our democratic institutions are
safe, but we clearly see today that they’re
fragile.”

Internet discussion began swirling when Kellyanne Conway first
used the phrase “alternative facts” during a network
television interview. Castillo says he saw many references
comparing Conway’s remark to George Orwell’s
1984. But he also read posts directed at a quote from Dr.
Who: “You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the
facts; they alter the facts to fit their views.”

But there’s more.

Intrigued, Castillo learned the entire quote ends with the
clause: “…which can be uncomfortable if you happen to
be one of the facts that needs altering.”

“That’s the key,” he says. “Anas
Modamani, the Syrian refugee who is suing Facebook over a selfie
that has shown up in fake news reports associating him with
terrorist events in Europe, is fighting for his real life.

“He has become an alternative fact,” says Castillo.
“This can happen to anybody. We can all become alternative
facts.”

But the humanities can play an important role, according to
Castillo.

“More than ever, the humanities can facilitate and drive
our society to the kinds of discussions that will allow for
critical thinking,” he says. “Without critical thinking
there is no freedom.”

“Rather than cutting funding to the humanities and
steering students in different directions, we need to encourage and
strengthen the humanities,” said Castillo. “Critical
thinking is not some kind of lofty, scholarly goal.”